USC announcer says Trojans must play mistake-free vs. No. 1 Notre Dame

admin November 23, 2012 0

By DOUG GRIFFITHS
ISL Assistant Editor

Once again IndySportsLegends.com provides you a scouting report of Notre Dame’s upcoming opponent through the eyes of the radio play-by-play announcer.

This week we spoke with Pete Arbogast, the Voice of the Trojans.

Needless to say, USC has had an extremely disappointing season. After being tabbed the No. 1 team in the country in the preseason, the Trojans have struggled to just a 7-4 overall record, 5-4 in the Pac-12 following a 38-28 loss last Saturday to rival UCLA.

Following is what Arbogast had to say about the Trojans and their game against No. 1 Notre Dame Saturday evening in Los Angeles.

IndySportsLegends.com: Why hasn’t SC lived up to the preseason hype?
Arbogast: They’ve been tremendously inconsistent on both sides of the ball. They’ll play three good quarters of ball and then just disappear. Sometimes it’s at the beginning and sometimes it’s at the end. We just don’t know when it’s coming.

Secondarily these games they have lost – three of the last four they’ve lost – they’ve turned the ball over 17 times. The only game they won during that stretch was Arizona State and Arizona State turned it over four times. Otherwise they would be looking at a four-game losing streak.

IndySportsLegends.com: Many of the so-called critics picked the Trojans to be the nation’s No. 1 team and thought they were capable of winning the national championship. With that in mind, just how disappointing a season has it been?
Arbogast: It got away from them early, otherwise it would be worse. If they hadn’t lost to Stanford early on then losing these games at the end would’ve hurt a lot more.

When you lose right at the end and you’re 9-0 or 10-0, you think you have a chance and it really drives a dagger in there. But the loss to Stanford really work everybody up and they said, ˜Ok, we’re not as good as we thought we were.’ They hadn’t been playing great ball up until that point (2-0)

The disappointment factor wasn’t quite as high as it might have been had they been undefeated going into these last few weeks.

IndySportsLegends.com: USC athletic director Pat Haden recently came out in support of Trojan coach Lane Kiffin, but were you surprised that Kiffin came under fire in just Year Two in Southern California?
Arbogast: You know, hey, you’re at a top-flight program and you don’t live up to expectations, you’re going to get that right away. You’re going to get it from the fans first, then you’re going to get a little bit from the media and then you’re going to get it from within. He (Haden) cut the within part off, at least for the time being. If he’s true to his word, Lane Kiffin will be the head coach next year and if a change needs to be made, I’m sure Pat will make it when it has to happen.

IndySportsLegends.com: Matt Barkley is hurt and won’t play so Irish fans want to know exactly what kind of quarterback they’ll see in Max Wittek. What have you seen from him in practice and what do you expect him to do well against Notre Dame?
Arbogast: He comes from the University of Mater Dei (where he took over for Barkley in high school). Everybody is familiar with Mater Dei High School in Southern California. They’ve turned out a bunch of guys who have been there in the Heisman picture and a couple of them have won it.

He’s a big, tall, strong-armed kid. He’s been in the program for two-and-a-half years now. He was an early entry out of Mater Dei so he spent spring ball with the team a couple of years ago and then last season as a true freshman, he redshirted. He’s gotten some playing time, but not a lot this year.

He has a great head on his shoulders. I had him on the post-game show a few weeks ago after he had a nice fill-in fourth quarter. I said, ˜Are you looking at next year as you’re still competing with Cody Kessler and the kid from Washington (Max Browne, the No. 1-rated prep QB in the nation according to Rivals.com) as the backup to Matt Barkley at this time?’ He said, ˜No, I’m competing right now with Matt Barkley for the starting quarterback position. That told me a lot about where he comes from.

He has a howitzer for an arm. He can really throw the ball. (Receiver) Marqise Lee was joking about it this week about how hard he throws compared to Barkley. He also runs it a little bit. Matt is not going to be confused with a running quarterback.

At 6-foot-4, 240 pounds, he’s a big, old dog now so he’s tough to bring down once he gets going.

We haven’t seen him take a real snap that meant anything.

I would imagine they would try to keep it simple for him, but on the other hand, ˜Why?’ Why wouldn’t you just open it up and let him play? They have nothing to lose and everything to gain by putting up a good showing against Notre Dame in the Coliseum.

I’m hoping they just let him go out and play like he does in practice and don’t worry about the rest of the stuff.

IndySportsLegends.com: Do you think the game plan will change a lot without Barkley?
Arbogast: Well, Notre Dame’s defense is awfully good. Even with Barkley in there it was going to be tough to move the ball, especially in the red zone. It’s tough to score on these guys and it’s tough to get it in even when you’re down close.

I just hope they go with their regular game plan and do what they do well. Get the ball to (receiver Robert) Woods and (flanker Nelson) Agholor and Lee and let (tailback) Curtis McNeal run a little bit and take your chances. You have nothing to lose.

There’s no reason to put the collar on this guy in a game like this. What’s the difference between going 8-4 and 7-5? Not a lot so go ahead and play. It can only be a glorious day, otherwise it’s just another loss in a long string of losses at the end of the season.

One thing I will say though is Barkley had been turning the ball over all the time, three interceptions a game over the last few games.

IndySportsLegends.com: What does this Trojan team do well?
Arbogast: They like to throw to these guys and let them get out in space and create. Woods and Lee are very tough to bring down once they get out there in the open field.

The receiving corps is really good, but opponents’ secondaries have been manhandling them ever since the beginning of the season. There’s been a lot of grabbing, shirt untucking, hacking and pushing and the refs just get tired of calling it after a while so teams have been fairly successful at that over the course of the season.

They do run it, too. McNeal will run and if Silas Redd is healthy, which I don’t think he is, then McNeal will be the guy and he’s been getting 150 yards a pop the last couple of weeks so he’s been very good.

Everytime I see him (Redd) out there, he’s limping around. He just doesn’t look right. If he plays, he’ll play for a couple of plays like he did last week.

IndySportsLegends.com: Turnovers aside, what’s SC’s biggest weakness?
Arbogast: Well, you can’t do that and they keep doing it. They also get down in the red zone and it’s first-and-goal at the 10 and somebody will hold and now it’s first-and-goal at the 20. That just kills you.

Those two things have been awful. They’ve fixed the penalty problem. They were getting 100-plus yards a game in penalties and now it’s come way down the last few weeks.

Here we are in Game 11 and you’re asking them to clean stuff up. It’s been a problem all season long. I just don’t see that happening.

IndySportsLegends.com: Do you think Notre Dame’s defense is what concerns SC most?
Arbogast: Sure, but we know about (Theo) Riddick and Cierre Wood. It’s like a conference game. We see you every year. There are no secrets. (Everett) Golson can run.

If there’s one thing that’s good, we see a running quarterback every single week in the Pac-12 and every team runs the spread offense. In theory we know how to stop the thing. We haven’t been doing a very good job of it, except against Arizona State and they helped a little bit. Gap integrity, staying with your assignments, staying home, tackling well and they don’t do any of that very well right now on defense. That’s not to say they can’t, but they just haven’t been.

IndySportsLegends.com: What must the Trojans do to beat the Irish?
Arbogast: Play much better than they have been the last few weeks and play with some emotion. This team is kind of emotionless. They’ve very workmanlike and businesslike. They need to come out and play with some emotion and I expect they will a little bit more than usual because it’s Senior Day and there will be a huge crowd and it’s on national TV and ESPN GameDay so there’s more emotion here I think and that will probably serve them well.

They’ve got to clean up the red-zone problems. They’ve got to clean up the tackling problems. I don’t know how they do that in a course of a week other than being a little luckier and being in the right place at the right time.

They need to play more physical football and they haven’t been doing that.

IndySportsLegends.com: When you’re calling the game, what will be a key matchup you’re watching?
Arbogast: I think it’s the Trojans’ defensive line and their ability to handle Notre Dame’s offensive line so they can negate whatever running game there is for Notre Dame and make Golson have to throw the ball. You have to be able to keep an eye on this guy. Don’t let him run around. Don’t let him get yards because that will soften up the defense and that will make him a much better passer.

On that side of the ball also, something the Trojans have not done well at all is keeping an eye on the other team’s tight end. They play this Cover Two zone and always the tight end seems to be open over the middle on big plays. They have to keep an eye on (Tyler) Eifert all game long.

I doubt they’ll do it, but I would like to see them let Wittek go, let him throw the ball to his guys and let him play like he does in practice.

If the Trojans are in the game at the end of the first quarter and they haven’t turned the ball over a couple of times, then I think we have a football game. If Notre Dame gets out big like 10-0 or 14-0, then probably not.

IndySportsLegends.com: Short of a prediction, what kind of a game do you envision between the Trojans and the Irish?
Arbogast: I would have to imagine a low-scoring game that Notre Dame wins 21-14 or so.

Usually SC coughs up the ball somewhere at an inopportune moment on their side of the field. If that happens, as has been happening, then Notre Dame will probably win the game.